When the BBC, flourishing its Worldwide, buys something, it buys the lot: say Lonely Planet for £130m. But when it sells, it keeps a minority stake or a contractual watching brief: see the clutch of 18 magazines it sort-of half-sold to Exponent 18 months ago. These mags had a BBC brand, so needed continuing links, it said. But the price of that whole 33-title bundle – including the Radio Times, sold outright, and the half-retained 18 – was only £121m, far less than the cost of Lonely Planet alone.

And now? The worth of the Planet has been gradually written down to a notional £85m. Now, as sale to a US billionaire is bruited, the old minority-stake ritual seems operational again, which means cheap-cheap-cheap: an effective loss on the whole deal compounded. It can get really lonely out there if you're a licence fee payer.